Blas Ople

Blas Fajardo Ople (February 3, 1927 – December 14, 2003) was a Filipino journalist and politician who held several high-ranking positions in the executive and legislative branches of the Philippine government, including as Senate President from 1999 to 2000, and as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2002 until his death.

Ople was born in Hagonoy, Bulacan on February 3, 1927, to Felix Antonio Ople, a craftsman who repaired boats, and his wife Segundina Fajardo.

He graduated valedictorian of his grade school class at the Hagonoy Elementary School in 1941.

Upon the invasion of the Philippines by Japan during World War II, he also had been to Hagonoy Institute during his secondary schooling, the teenage Ople joined the guerilla movement and fought under the Del Pilar Regiment and the Buenavista Regiment of the Bulacan Military Area founded by Alejo Santos.

In 1948, he finished his high school studies at the Far Eastern University High School in Manila.

He worked towards a degree in liberal arts at the Educational Center of Asia (formerly Quezon College) in Manila.

After graduation, Ople pursued a career in journalism.

He became a desk editor at the Daily Mirror and the author of its Jeepney Tales column.

Still in his twenties, Ople was one of the youngest newspaper columnists of that era.

Ople also established a public relations consulting firm.

He soon became known for his nationalist views.

He co-founded the Kilusang Makabansa (National Progress Movement), an organization which frequently spoke out on issues of nationalism and social justice in the 1950s.

In 1953, he joined the Magsaysay-for-President Movement, a volunteer group supporting the presidential campaign of Ramon Magsaysay, heading its Executive Planning Committee and working as a speechwriter for candidates of the Nacionalista Party.

After Magsaysay's election, he joined the government as special assistant to the Secretary of Labor and technical assistant on labor and agrarian affairs.

In 1965, Ople was appointed as Social Security Commissioner by President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

In 1967, he was appointed Secretary of Labor and Employment (in 1978 the position was renamed Minister of Labor and Employment).

He resigned briefly in 1971 to run an unsuccessful campaign for election to the Philippine Senate, but was re-appointed to his post in 1972, retaining the position until 1986.

At the time of his appointment, Ka Blas was perceived as a "leftist Nationalist".

His leftist credentials were enhanced when he co-founded, in 1972, the Philippine-Soviet Friendship Society.

As Labor Secretary, Ka Blas was instrumental in the framing of the Labor Code of the Philippines, which codified the labor laws of the country and introduced innovations such as prohibiting the termination of workers without legal cause.

Ople instituted labor policies institutionalizing the technical education of workers.

In 1975, he was elected president of the 60th International Labour Conference of the ILO, the first Filipino to hold that post.

In 1976, Ople initiated a program for the overseas employment of Filipino workers.

It was during his tenure at Labor that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration were created.

Ople obtained recognition from the International Labour Organization during his stint as Labor Minister.

In 1978, Ople was elected an assemblyman of the Interim Batasang Pambansa representing Central Luzon, and reelected in 1984.

In 1983, that organization awarded Ople a Gold Medal of Appreciation.

He was a close adviser of President Marcos, though he was not later to be associated with the corruption of the Marcos' government and was perceived as "not corrupt".

He created international headlines in December 1984 when he admitted to the press that the lupus-stricken Marcos was incapacitated to the point of being unable "to take major initiatives", and that the President's illness had placed the Philippines in "a kind of interregnum".

Marcos responded a few days later by baring his chest to his Cabinet before television cameras to dispel rumors that he was seriously ill or had undergone surgery.

During the 1986 presidential elections, Ople served as a political campaign manager of President Marcos, who was running against Corazon Aquino.

Shortly before the outbreak of the 1986 People Power Revolution, Marcos dispatched Ople to Washington, D.C. to lobby the American government on behalf of the President.

Ople was in Washington D.C. upon the outbreak of the revolt, and was advised by U.S. Secretary of State, George P. Shultz, to call on Marcos to resign.

Ople publicly reiterated his support for Marcos in the American media in such fora as on This Week with David Brinkley.

Following the success of the People Power Revolution and the installation to the presidency of Corazon Aquino, Ople was relieved of his Cabinet post.

Ople returned to the Philippines and immediately attempted to position himself as the leader of the political opposition against Aquino.

Nonetheless in May 1986, Ople accepted an offer by President Aquino to serve in the Constitutional Commission that drafted a new Philippine Constitution.

In the 1987 congressional elections, Ople ran a second time for the Philippine Senate, under the banner of the Grand Alliance for Democracy coalition.

Perceived as a leftist-nationalist at the onset of his career in public service, Ople was, in his final years, a vocal supporter for allowing a limited United States military presence in the Philippines, and for American initiatives in the War on Terror including the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Ople's most enduring role was his nineteen years as Secretary (later Minister) of Labor and Employment during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, when Philippine labor laws were overhauled through the enactment of the Labor Code of the Philippines that he had helped author.